


Cookie Crumbs of Fate

by Crunchysunrises



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Firefly, Firefly
Genre: Community: wishlist_fic, F/M, Gen, Spaceships, Vampire Slayer(s), Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-03
Updated: 2012-02-03
Packaged: 2017-12-17 17:36:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/870165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crunchysunrises/pseuds/Crunchysunrises
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Buffy was just following the cries for help. Too bad they led her straight into the year 2517 and onto a certain firefly-class ship called <em>Serenity.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [marybwolf](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=marybwolf).



> Character Death (Sort Of)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Title:** Cookie Crumbs of Fate  
>  **Fandom:** Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Firefly  
>  **Rating:** PG  
>  **Content Notes:** Character Death (Sort Of)  
>  **Disclaimer:** I have no rights to or within the Buffy or Firefly franchises, copyrights, characters or trademarks. This is for fun, not profit.  
>  **Summary:** Buffy was just following the cries for help. Too bad they led her straight into the year 2517 and onto a certain firefly-class ship called _Serenity._  
>  **Additional Notes:** Written for [](http://marybwolf.dreamwidth.org/profile)[](http://marybwolf.dreamwidth.org/)**marybwolf** for Wishlist 2011. Her prompts was for a Buffy/Firefly crossover, set from Buffy after Angel's departure at the end of season 3. She asked for Angel, introductions, reactions, and no romance between Angel and Buffy. Also fills my "telepathic trauma" square for h/c bingo.

They were docked in one of the seedier spaceports on New Charon when River began to act… strangely. More strangely than usual and for River Tam that was saying a lot.

Inara and the Shepherd had left to go ‘bout their businesses days ago. The Captain and Jayne had left awhile ago to meet a potential client and Zoe and Simon had left to restock the ship’s infirmary not ten minutes after that when River wandered into Kaylee’s engine room. She was barefoot and wild-eyed. The hem of her dress was tattered again.

Kaylee kept an eye on her while she worked.

_Poor little thing’s half out of her mind on her good days. Wouldn’t do to let her burn herself on a hot pipe or get something in her eyes._

River spun and hummed to music only she could hear. Her dirty feet flashed through the steps of a complicated dance.

“I really admire you for bein’ able to dance like that,” Kaylee said conversationally. “All smooth and quick like that. And I’d bet you can keep a rhythm if’n you have a mind to. I bet you’re the best dancer on Serenity – ‘cept maybe for Inara.”

“People should dance when they’re happy and be happy when they dance.”

Kaylee blinked then straightened up, modifications to the engines temporarily forgotten. As far as she knew, this was the first time River had admitted to having feelings about anything at all. And she was happy! Maybe.

“Are you happy?” Kaylee asked carefully.

River abruptly stopped dancing. She cocked her head to the side as if she was listening to something that only she could hear.

It gave Kaylee the willies.

“I need to go shopping.” River turned to stare directly at Kaylee. Her eyes were unnerving. “Right now.”

“Oh, I don’t think the Capt’n or your brother would like – where are you going?”

River had spun on the ball of her foot and started marching for the door.

“Shopping.”

The word drifted back to Kaylee, echoing oddly off of the ship’s innards. It was nearly lost in the familiar hum of the ship’s engines.

Kaylee scrambled after River.

“But the Capt’n! And Simon! They wanted you to stay here!”

River kept marching forward.

“You need money to shop!”

River shrugged, undeterred.

“Shoes!” Kaylee said desperately. “No one will sell to someone without shoes on.”

River hesitated.

“If you put on shoes, I’ll go with you!”

River nodded, her wild hair bobbling around her shoulders. Then she disappeared down the corridor to the crew’s quarters.

Kaylee _ran_ for Wash, the soles of her shoes clunking against the metal gratings. Zoe or the Capt’n or even Jayne would’ve noticed the noise and been lookin’ for her. When Kaylee burst onto the bridge, Wash looked thoroughly shocked to see her.

“Kaylee?”

“River! She’s – She’s – ”

Wash was on his feet in an instant.

“Hurt?”

Kaylee shook her head.

“Still on the ship?”

She hesitated a moment then nodded.

“Then we can probl’y handle it. Where is she?”

“The cargo bay?” Kaylee guessed.

She and Wash found River waiting in the cargo bay. On seeing them, her expression eased from a frown into her usual blankness. She was wearing a pair of Jayne’s scuffed combat boots.

“Oh,” Kaylee said. “Honey, those aren’t yours.”

“You said I had to wear _a_ pair of shoes,” River pointed out. She stomped a booted foot against the grating. The sound echoed through the cargo bay.

Wash arched his eyebrows at Kaylee who ducked her head and shrugged. Whatever he would have said to her turned into an outraged squawk as River started toward the hatch.

“River! Don’t –”

“I’m going now,” was all she said before she disappeared out of the ship.

Wash and Kaylee exchanged looks.

“Someone has to stay with the ship,” Wash said, “Captain’s orders.”

“I’ll go,” said Kaylee. She was feeling thoroughly resigned at that point. “This’s my fault anyway. Tell the Cap’n I’m sorry if he gets back b’fore me.”

Then she sprinted after River.

Watching River shop was a lesson in oddity. She drifted from stall to stall, sniffing toothpaste boxes, squeezing dolls and licking makeup kits. Only good thing about it was that it seemed to keep River entertained. Every time one of the merchants started to tell River off, the little girl would go still and look them in the eye real hard like. Whoever she was lookin’ at would go still and quiet and pale. Then they’d shuffle away from River like she was some kinda wild animal from Earth That Was instead of a skinny little girl.

The merchants must’ve found River’s stare as terrible as Kaylee did because none of ‘em bothered to argue with Kaylee about prices either. She’d suggested prices that were too low, expect’n to dicker about it, and they’d looked at River (who looked at right back at them all hard like) and agreed to ‘em.

Once, when River was sniffing a pot of face powder, Kaylee asked, “Why’re you doin’ that, honey? It’s not scented.”

“It’s got to be right. She’s very picky.”

River seemed to think that covered it because she said nothing else on the matter. The next time Kaylee tried to steer River, they were in a tiny secondhand clothing shop.

“River, that’s a real pretty dress,” Kaylee said gently. “But it’s too… short for you.”

It was so short and cut so close that Kaylee blushed at the mere thought of owning it, much less actually wearing it. _Inara_ would probably blush in that get up! It was entirely inappropriate for a girl like River.

“That’s okay. It’s not for me,” River said. She lifted the dress higher and tilted her head. Kaylee was certain that the change in perspective would do nothing to improve the little black dress. “It’s for my jie-jie. I think she’ll like it.”

Kaylee startled. Surprise and interest curled through her heart. And a little bit of hurt because why hadn’t Simon said anything about another sister? He had always left everyone with the impression that River was his only sibling.

“Your brother never mentioned ya’ll havin’ another sister.”

“He doesn’t,” River said. She tucked the dress under one skinny arm and turned to inspect the trousers being offered by the secondhand shop. She sounded entirely unconcerned to be admitting to what was probably a shameful family secret. “I do. She’s short. But don’t tell her.”

“I’ll remember that,” Kaylee promised. She was wondering how this sister was related to one Tam sibling and not the other. She knew for a fact that River and Simon had the same parents. “Does the Capt’n know she’s comin’ to visit?”

“It’s a surprise,” River confided as she tucked two pairs of soft, comfortable pants under her arm. Kaylee approved of those.

“The Capt’n doesn’t like surprises,” Kaylee said. She could feel that she was frowning and tried to smooth her face out. “Ya’ll should tell ‘em she’s coming.”

“Simon doesn’t know,” River said. She sounded exasperated. Kaylee felt bad about that because she honestly _tried_ not to be a bother to anyone much less to someone like River who (literally) had a whole armada of troubles of her own. “It’s a _surprise.”_

“Then how do you know?” Kaylee asked, curious despite River’s annoyance. “How’d she tell you that she was comin’ without tellin’ anyone else?”

“Because she’s my jie-jie,” River said. She made it sound like sisterhood was some sort of secret, sacred bond that transcended time and space. It sort of made Kaylee wish that she had a sister instead of more brothers than you could shake a wrench at. Not that she’d give up one of her brothers for a sister. She just wanted one in addition to the brothers she already had.

Humming to herself, River stuffed a pair of brown corduroy pants, two packets of socks, a pair of leather pants and three packets of panties into Kaylee’s arms. She wandered off to admire the bras. Kaylee trailed after her.

“Most women like to pick their own,” Kaylee hesitantly offered. “Won’t she have bras – and clothes – of her own?”

“Jie-jie travels like light.”

River selected three bras – one black, one skin-toned and one bright orange – and shoved them into Kaylee’s arms.

“We should probably tell the Capt’n that she’s coming,” Kaylee tried again as River inspected the shirts and blouses. “She’ll want a place to sleep. And food. We’ve got to get more food if there are more people onboard.”

“She can share mine.”

Kaylee felt herself wilt just a teeny tiny bit. Talking to River was _hard_ , especially on days where she made some sort of sense. Kaylee paid more attention to what she said on those days.

When they had a small wardrobe, a pair of boots, ridiculous pajamas, blankets, cosmetics, toiletries, towels, pillows, and a duffle bag to carry everything in, River declared them nearly done. It was all shockingly cheap. Kaylee made a mental note to tell the Capt’n that he should take River with him on his next supply run.

“A stuffed pig and we’re done!”

They ended up purchasing a stuffed pig, three knives, a set of children’s textbooks and a tub of real double chocolate ice cream before Kaylee could persuade River to head back to the ship. River was eyeing a knife long enough be a short sword with obvious interest (The last person who needed to be carrying an edged weapon was River Tam!), when Kaylee exclaimed, “Oh no! The ice cream’s getting soft!”

River forgot all about the sword in favor of hustling Kaylee back to the ship before the ice cream melted.

Everyone was sitting around the table in the galley. River breezed past them, presumably on a mission to get the ice cream into the freezer before it melted. That left everyone glaring at Kaylee.

Kaylee hunched her shoulders and wished that River had bought less. Her hands were beginning to hurt.

It was a long time before Kaylee could get a word in edgewise. The general opinion was that it had been incredibly reckless, bordering on the edge of insanity, to take River into public.

“You could’ve been seen!” Simon raved. Kaylee curled in on herself. “She could’ve been snatched by the Alliance! Of all the hair-brained, stupid –”

“Lay off,” Mal cut in sharply. “She’s not responsible for _your_ sister.”

“River would’ve gone with or without Kaylee,” Wash added. “She just tagged along with River to keep her out of trouble.”

“River’s just excited that her big sister’s coming,” Kaylee said weakly. “She wanted to pick up a few things for her.”

“We don’t _have_ another sister,” Simon said coldly. “You should know that by now.”

“Well she said you did. She said your sister was short and very particular about her makeups. And possibly her toothpastes.”

“And you just believed her?” Simon demanded furiously. “You know as well as anyone else that River is… damaged. How could you actually –”

“Lay off,” Jayne grunted. “How was she to know that your sister was actin’ crazier than usual? She’s probably just happy that no one got cut.” He hesitated for a moment. “No one got cut, did they? ‘Cause it’d be a shame to have wasted time yellin’ at you when we should’ve been running.”

The Capt’n actually paused. Simon glared at Jayne. River breezed in to collect the rest of her purchases from Kaylee.

“River, what’s this ‘bout your jie-jie coming to visit?” demanded the Capt’n. “Your brother says that you two don’t have any other brothers or sisters.”

“Not _Simon’s_ sister. _Mine_. She’s on her way to me.” River paused. She cocked her head to the side. The gesture should have looked cute. It was not. Kaylee shivered. “I dreamed her. We all did. And now she’s coming.”

“I don’t dream about nothin’,” Jayne declared stolidly. “And she’s givin’ me an uncomfortableness again. I’m leavin’.”

So saying, Jayne disappeared back into the depths of the ship. Kaylee envied him. If she was safe in her engine room, all of this unpleasantness would already be over.

“All of us?” asked Simon. He looked tired and pained. Kaylee’s heart ached for him and the crazy little girl holding a duffle bag filled with clothes that would fit no one on Serenity.

“When jie-jie comes, things’re gonna go fast and change.” River’s voice lowered to a whisper. Her fingers tightened around the duffle’s straps as she leaned in toward the rest of the crew conspiratorially. “She’s gonna take everything and shake it up and change the shape. She’ll cut off the two by two hands of blue and stab the shadows into little pieces so that they lie flat like they should. She’s gonna protect us. She _promised._ ”

“’Course she is,” the Capt’n said indulgently. That was real nice in Kaylee’s opinion since it looked like Simon sort of wanted to cry. “But don’t you go mess’n up one of my cabins. We’re having paying passengers come on board soon and when they do, they’re each going to want their pick their own quarters.”

River scowled. She stormed off, taking her new things with her. Kaylee had a feeling that an empty cabin was already half decorated and nothing Mal could say was going to keep it from being fully decorated. But whatever happened, Kaylee fully intended to stay out of it. She had been yelled at enough for a whole month of Sundays.

“I – I’m sorry,” Simon said. He sounded tired. Kaylee sort of wanted to put him to bed… and maybe crawl into it with him. Just for awhile. If she stayed too long, Serenity would miss her. “She never talks about her dreams.”

“I think I prefer it that way,” Wash said. “It’s weirder around here when she does.”

Kaylee considered pointing out that she had spent her money on a bunch of clothes that were never going to fit any of them but decided to let the debt go. Simon had enough problems right now without being reminded of that. Instead, she quietly escaped back to her engine room before anything else could distract her from their maintenance.

 

 

 

The new passengers appeared to be many things. Odds were, they were also many other, less obvious things. Mal was willing to bet serious money that honest, trustworthy and moral were not among them. In his experience, people who possessed all three of those qualities did not contract with Serenity for passage for themselves and several crates of mysterious cargo. They had promised that the contents were no danger to Serenity or her crew and paid extra to keep them mysterious.

Mal planned to crack one of those crates open the first chance he got. Just to be certain.

That was why he was holding onto the boss’ bankbook and identification papers as a sign of good faith. It was useless without the man’s passwords but Mal had already checked with the Central Bank and the man was _loaded_. And he wasn’t on the Alliance’s Most Wanted List. (After taking on the doc and his sister, Mal checked things like that. Serenity was starting to get mighty crowded what with taking on a preacher, a doctor and a crazy girl.)

After the train job, Serenity and her crew needed a quiet little moneymaker like this.

“Mr.O’Conner,” Kaylee said. She blushed and looked up at the man through her lashes as she patted the seat next to her. “I saved you a seat.”

“Call me Angel, please,” the pale man said with a charming smile.

Kaylee looked terribly pleased as the man slowly made his way toward her and the empty seat. Zoe and River’s eyes were glued to him the entire way. Zoe’s gaze was glued to his ass. River watched him like a merchant would watch a known serial killer.

Zoe and Kaylee both heaved quiet sighs when he sat down. The doc and Wash glowered. That might’ve worried Mal but he was too busy worrying about River’s glare to give it much thought. The girl wasn’t right in the head which made her dangerous in and of herself.

 _Angel’s_ employee, a quiet bookish man by the name of Wesley, sat down next to his employer. The light gleamed oddly off of the lens of his spectacles. Mal frowned, instinctively disliking how it hid his eyes.

“Angel! Your mama sure picked a pretty name,” Kaylee gushed.

The man smiled at Kaylee who practically swooned.

“My mother named me something much more practical,” Angel told Kaylee. His eyes were focused on River, however. “But my first love called me that the night we met. It stuck.”

“That’s so romantic!” Kaylee cooed.

The doc’s frown deepened. River patted his hand without looking away from Angel.

“Don’t worry. Jie-jie knows how to turn it one hundred and thirty-six degrees.”

Simon sighed. “River, you’re my only sister.”

“That’s true,” she hummed. “But I’ll have one soon.”

“Oh?” Angel’s dark eyes moved between Kaylee and the doc.

“We’re not!” Kaylee hurried to say. She looked up at Angel through her lashes. “I’m a free woman, I am.”

“Oh,” he intoned. The sheer insinuation in that look would have made Inara blush. Little Kaylee looked like a breathless tomato. Angel’s eyes returned to River. “That’s good to know.”

Kaylee looked like she might pass out in the peas.

A frown flickered across Zoe’s features. Mal knew his own expression matched hers. The good doctor looked like he was thinking about stabbing the client with the butter knife.

Well. That would never do. If the doc started killing the clients and word got out, they’d get even less work than they did now.

“So what do you do?” Mal asked, deliberately changing the conversation.

“I’m the head of a law firm.”

“Must be some kind of client that you’re transporting his stuff for him.”

Both men smiled. It was pleasant but there were darker things lurking under those flashes of teeth.

“She’s not a client,” corrected Wesley. He was so pale that he nearly glowed against the darker metals of Serenity’s bulwarks. “She’s the head of our clan.”

“Oh,” said Kaylee. Her tone was both confused and cheerful. “Well…. Well, that real nice of you, still.”

“I’ll make sure to share that opinion with her,” Wesley promised, his smile widening. There was something unpleasant about it.

Mal decided that he disliked the new passengers.

Angel and Wesley declined to eat dinner – dietary restrictions from their rather obscure religion, apparently – but they shared a bottle of whiskey with the crew. When Angel sipped at a cup and rolled his vowels charmingly, most of the crew forgot any uneasiness they may have felt about the men. Mal did not. Neither did River or the doctor, judging by the way that they were clutching their cutlery.

 _This is no quiet little job,_ Mal thought as he fortified himself for trouble by drinking as much of Angel’s fine single malt as he could stomach. If trouble was comin' Serenity's way, he would need to keep his strength up.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buffy was just following the cries for help. Too bad they led her straight into the year 2517 and onto a certain firefly-class ship called _Serenity._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
> **Title:** Cookie Crumbs of Fate  
>  **Fandom:** Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Firefly  
>  **Rating:** PG  
>  **Content Notes:** Character Death (Sort Of)  
>  **Disclaimer:** I have no rights to or within the Buffy or Firefly franchises, copyrights, characters or trademarks. This is for fun, not profit.  
>  **Summary:** Buffy was just following the cries for help. Too bad they led her straight into the year 2517 and onto a certain firefly-class ship called _Serenity._  
>  **Additional Notes:** Written for [](http://marybwolf.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**marybwolf**](http://marybwolf.dreamwidth.org/) for Wishlist 2011. Her prompts was for a Buffy/Firefly crossover, set from Buffy after Angel's departure at the end of season 3. She asked for Angel, introductions, reactions, and no romance between Angel and Buffy. Also fills my "telepathic trauma" square for h/c bingo.

Buffy blamed the vampires. If something went wrong in her life, it was usually their fault. Or a cult’s. Or some musty old prophecy’s.Or –

 _My life sucks hairy monkey balls,_ Buffy decided unhappily.

Buffy had been following the screams.

She had been patrolling (despite the fact that nothing seemed to ever happen in Sunnydale during summer’s short, sweaty nights) when she heard, very faintly, a whimper. Buffy had gone still, straining her ears for even a whisper of sound. One whimper was followed by another and then several others in rapid succession.

 _Kids!_ Buffy realized with a slow, crawling horror. _They’re a bunch of kids!_

Buffy took off running.

She made a few missteps and had to double back a couple of times before she was pretty sure that she was heading in the right direction. In the distance, she saw a familiar, tangled shape.

 _The high school,_ Buffy thought grimly as she neared the high school’s burnt out shell. _Of course. It’s always that place._

When she spotted a pack of vampires heading in the same direction – maybe they had kidnapped the kids for a midnight snack? – Buffy broken into a sprint.

The next few minutes were a blur of action and reaction, the feel of her stake slamming through breastbones and the thrill of fighting. She was still unsure how that pack of vampires had opened up the damn Hellmouth – and why they didn’t get clear of the suck, those morons – and where the kids were but Buffy was almost positive that she had gotten sucked into it.

Sort of.

Mostly, she seemed to be tumbling through empty space.

And she could _still_ hear those crying kids.

_Maybe I’m mad? Or the kids are in here with me. Why would vampires throw perfectly tender Happy Meals into the Hellmouth? Or maybe this is actually hell?_

Hell was certainly a lot more boring than Angel had described it.

She tucked her stake into the small of her back, checked the spare stake tucked into her boot and prepared herself for a potentially very long, definitely very boring wait.

Somehow, Buffy must have fallen asleep while falling. It was the only way to explain the dreams.

There were a lot of dreams.

She dreamed that Faith woke up. Faith was all angry eyes and bubbling vengeance until she found out that Buffy was missing. Being the only Slayer did nothing to settle Faith down. If anything, she went crazier, faster. She burned down Buffy’s house and stole Mr. Gordo. Fortunately, Mom was at the gallery when that happened. She forgot about hunting Buffy’s mom in the rush of hunting down Buffy’s friends. She seduced Xander, hurt Giles and would have taken Willow to hurt but Oz hit her with his van.

Faith got better.

And then she tortured Wesley, beat up Angel and burned down the Hyperion Hotel.

Somehow, somewhere along her path of self-destruction, Faith drew the attention of some super creepy, super secret government organization. It was headed by a modern Doctor Frankenstein who had her very own murderous monster.

Faith was captured and taken for study.

That was a mistake.

Buffy could have told them that was a mistake. Faith _did_ tell them that, loudly, repeated and sometimes while laughing crazily. (The crazy laughter came somewhere between the fifth and sixth invasive surgery. By then, Buffy was _hoping_ that Faith killed Doctor Frankenstein. Human or not, that woman was as evil as any demon.)

Faith died in that super secret government facility under Sunnydale University’s campus. She marked her death with fiery explosions, chaos and small scale nuclear fallout. Faith took _everything_ – She-Frankenstein, the monster, unwilling test subjects, soldiers, data and all of Greek Row – with her.

Not even in Sunnydale could so much rampant death, destruction and nuclear fallout be ignored. There were government inquests, public horror and a decree that Sunnydale was too radioactive to support human life for at least a few hundred years.

Despite everything, Buffy mourned and cried for Faith. No matter what had happened between them, Faith was more than just someone Buffy had known once. She was a Slayer and Buffy’s crazy, destructive little sister in the sense that mattered most.

There was a handful of girls who were Called after Faith but none of them lived longer than three months.

The girl who was called after that was fifteen and certifiably crazy. She was so nuts that she could not tell the difference between herself and the Slayer line. The first thing she did after being Called was to break out of the secure facility she was supposedly receiving treatment in. The second thing that she did was begin her reign of terror on the demon populations.

She was swift, brutal, efficient and merciless.

Being out of her mind protected Dana from certain enchantments designed to make her forget things or change her perspective. Her extreme mental instability also allowed Dana access to all those who had come before her in the Slayer line, including Buffy, and she channeled them as she needed them.

That hell goddess never knew what hit her.

Through Dana, Buffy learned things that she had never bothered to read about. She had a better grasp of world history. She knew the contents of the Slayer’s Handbook by heart. (Apparently, Buffy and Dana were the only Slayers who had never cracked the Slayer’s Handbook. Even _Faith_ had read the damn handbook. And they were all more than happy to impress their knowledge on Dana and Buffy so that it was like they had read it too. Damn pack mentality!) She learned how to make hot dogs and marshmallows. (And promptly swore never to eat either ever again. Ever.)

Buffy mourned Dana when she died.

Over the years, Buffy mourned for a lot of little sisters and then for girls who might have been her little sisters someday.

Making Sunnydale into a nuclear wasteland had stopped most demonic life forms from approaching the area and had neatly removed their source of prey. But not _all_ demons had radiation poisoning as a weakness. Safe in the dessert, those demons had trained and multiplied. Between a sudden surge of an army of those demons, some boneheads opening the Hellmouth and a deranged preacher who was determined to kill every girl who had the potential to be called as a Slayer, the Slayer line was exterminated and humanity was forced to flee Earth or perish.

The very last Slayer, a Chinese girl from New Jersey, died ensuring that the last of humanity’s ships made it off the planet.

After that, there were no more Slayers for Buffy to dream about.

She floated in the dark, alone and lonely. She was as every other Slayer was: lost and forgotten.

Over the years, Buffy had grown used to the whimpers. Sometimes they were there and sometimes it was quiet. Either way, there was nothing she could do about them. It had been hard but Buffy had learned to ignore them.

The first time someone _screamed_ – a boy, young – nearly scared Buffy to death.

There were lots of screams after that.

And Buffy, who had floated uselessly in the dark for so long, found her purpose again.

She had never been able to ignore a cry for help.

Buffy strained toward the voices, flailing and dragging herself through the dark.

And then…. There were voices. Childish voices that cried and begged for someone, _anyone_ , to rescue them. They screamed their pain and suffering and fear to the universe at large.

Time passed and the voices changed but the content of their shrieks remained the same. They needed to be rescued. Buffy needed to rescue people.

Eventually one voice rose above the others. Her voice was stronger and clearer than any of those who had called out to Buffy before her. The savagery and desperation and pain in the girl struck a chord in Buffy.

_Don’t go out! I’m coming!_

The voice rose again. Triumph and excitement and certainty thrummed through it. The voice was Buffy’s beacon in the darkness.

The voice changed again. Terror and panic and gut-wrenching fear thrummed through the girl’s voice.

With a twist and a wrench, Buffy yanked herself out of the darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buffy was just following the cries for help. Too bad they led her straight into the year 2517 and onto a certain firefly-class ship called _Serenity._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
> **Title:** Cookie Crumbs of Fate  
>  **Fandom:** Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Firefly  
>  **Rating:** PG  
>  **Content Notes:** Character Death (Sort Of)  
>  **Disclaimer:** I have no rights to or within the Buffy or Firefly franchises, copyrights, characters or trademarks. This is for fun, not profit.  
>  **Summary:** Buffy was just following the cries for help. Too bad they led her straight into the year 2517 and onto a certain firefly-class ship called _Serenity.  
> _ **Additional Notes:** Written for [](http://marybwolf.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**marybwolf**](http://marybwolf.dreamwidth.org/) for Wishlist 2011. Her prompts was for a Buffy/Firefly crossover, set from Buffy after Angel's departure at the end of season 3. She asked for Angel, introductions, reactions, and no romance between Angel and Buffy. Also fills my "telepathic trauma" square for h/c bingo.

Thirty-two hours outside of New Charon, Mal ordered Serenity’s non-vital systems to be cut and her engines to be turned off.

There were Reavers in the black.

The last thing Mal saw before the lights cut out was Angel’s smile. Mal prided himself on lacking the self preservation that the Creator gave a ship’s cat but the satisfaction in Angel’s smile sent a shiver down his spine. That smile was the very definition of predatory. Mal hated every self-satisfied iota of it.

As the dim emergency lights flickered on, Mal nudged Zoe.

“You're up,” Mal murmured to Zoe who tilted her head in a wordless nod and left the galley, presumably to visit Wash in the cockpit.

"Well!" said Angel as he stood up. "I think it's time for a nap."

"What else do people do in the dark?" Wesley blandly agreed as he stood up.

"Help the hopeless," Angel loudly suggested as the two men strode for the galley's door. Whatever the phrase meant, Angel said it with the familiarity of an old joke.

Wesley snorted.

Mal was across the galley in three quick steps.

"The Reavers will put us all out of our misery if you two don't _keep it quiet,"_ Mal hissed at their backs.

The two men laughed. Loudly. Apparently, they had to see a Reaver to believe in them.

"Keep quiet or I swear I'll space lock you."

The two men twisted to look back at him. Their eyes almost seemed to glow yellow in the low lights.

Mal tamped down on the urge to run like hell. There was no way that he was giving ground on his own gorram ship.

That turned out to be a mistake.

 

 

 

Mal's head was throbbing.

He tried not to breathe too hard.

Mal grudgingly searched his memory for what had happened to him. The last thing that he remembered was threatening to space the clients. And then there was a blur of movement. And then... nothing.

"Have you decided which pilot we're going to turn yet?" Wesley asked his employer.

"Not yet. They both promise to be irritating in their own ways. And we have Spike for that."

"Fair enough. We need the mechanic for sure."

The warm corduroy under Mal's cheek whimpered.

Mal was instantly awake and alert. His brain was pounding and the lizard bit of his hindbrain woke up and shrieked an alarm. He kept his eyes closed, pretending to still be asleep and hoping for an edge.

Someone shifted next to him, her movement hiding the way Mal's body tensed. Mal recognized the scent of Zoe's conditioner.

"Spike'll enjoy the hellcat," Angel said. "Closest thing to a Slayer that I've seen in centuries."

Next to him, Zoe was vibrating with her frustrated urge for violence.

"Why're you doing this?" Zoe demanded. "Is it for the ship?"

"What about the seer?" Wesley asked, ignoring Zoe. In Mal's experience, that was always a mistake. "She's your type."

"Dru's missed Earth since we left it," Angel said thoughtfully. "She doesn't like actually visiting her friends. It might be kinder to put her to rest. And send Spike along to take care of her. He's good at that."

"It sounds like you're only interested in a few of us," Jayne put in. "So if you could just let the rest of us off at the next space port, I'm sure that we'd all be much obliged."

"They aren't going to let any of us off anywhere," the shepherd said heavily."They're going to eat us... and the Reavers, too, I'd imagine."

"Cannibals?" squeaked Kaylee.

 _"Vampires,"_ Shepherd Book corrected.

"Hey! You _have_ heard the old stories!" Angel sounded positively delighted. "When'd you figure it out?"

"Too late, it seems," Book said grimly.

"Far too late. Angel, I don't want to rush you but we're pressed for time. The Reavers are going to be here soon."

"I've decided. We're keeping the mechanic, the seer, and... _that_ one."

Something clunked against flesh, Simon shouted, Zoe thrashed away from Mal, and River and Kaylee screamed. Mal gave up pretending to be asleep. He was on his feet in a heartbeat.

They were in the hallway that connected the crew's quarters.

The Shepherd and Jayne were both unconscious on the floor. Zoe was attacking Wesley who, his arms locked around a struggling Wash, blithely dodged or ignored her blows. His mouth was pressed to Wash's throat. River, who was wrapped in Angel's arms., was struggling just as hopelessly. Angel's mouth was clamped on her throat. When Simon threw himself at Angel, the bigger man removed his mouth from River's throat long enough to carelessly backhand Simon into a bulkhead.

Angel's face was inhuman. His eyes were _yellow._ And his _mouth_ was covered with _blood._

River's throat was _bleeding._

 _Vampires,_ Mal thought as he went through the Sheperd's pockets. _They're gorram **vampires.**_

The old man had an old time wooden cross.A _real_ wooden cross from Earth-That-Was. In Mal's hands, it lit up like a miniature star.

The girl thrashed against Angel. She opened her mouth, giving life to an inhuman wail. It echoed around the hallway, clawed its way down Mal's spine, and chased after his sanity.

Mal froze.

 _Everyone_ froze.

Then, River did it again.

This time it seemed to suck the air out of the hallway, like they were all being space locked inside the gorram ship. Mal gasped and staggered, nearly dropping the cross. Then, with an audible _pop,_ the air rushed back into the hallway, bringing with it a blonde woman. She _literally_ tumbled out of nowhere and landed on her feet.

"Jie-jie," gasped River. "You came!"

"Angel?" wheezed the blonde woman. She was pale and dressed very oddly. Around her neck, four crosses lit up like small stars. The bigger vampire flinched away from her. "What're you doing?"

"Help me!" demanded River. Blood from her torn throat tricked over the sharp edge of her collar bone. "You _promised!"_

Mal took advantage of the distraction. He thrust the glowing cross at Angel who recoiled from it, taking River with him. He ended up standing next to Wesley.

 _"Wesley?"_ the woman rasped, her voice rising to a shriek. "What happened? What's going on?"

"Hello Buffy," Wesley said calmly as he lifted his mouth from Wash's throat. Wash was limp in his grasp. "Long time, no see."

"There's no way that's _Buffy,"_ insisted Angel as he absently adjusted his grip on River. Behind him Kaylee, who had disappeared during the bulk of the fighting, stepped out of Wash and Zoe's quarters. She gripped Zoe's old time rifle like a club.

"A Watcher never forgets his Slayer," Wesley said before he tore at his wrist with a fang.

"Angel? You turned Wesley?" The woman sounded betrayed. She looked devastated. One of her hands went to the small of her back. Mal watched her hand close around... something. "Have you lost your soul again?"

"I'm still cursed," the bigger vampire sneered as his companion pressed his bleeding limb to Wash's mouth. "You'd be surprised what a soul will allow you to do, given enough time."

Wash's noisy sucking sounded obscene in the silence.

"Let them go," Mal ordered as he took a slow step toward the vampires. His straight arm was extended before him, brandishing the holy object at the vampires. "Or I'll use this to kill you."

Mal had not the vaguest idea of how to kill a vampire. Fairytales had never particularly interested him, except, well, these particular fairytales seemed to be very real. And very hungry.

"You don't know how," sneered Angel.

The woman's expression hardened. She pulled a chunk of sharpened wood from the back of her waistband.

"But I do," the blonde said as she lunged. Little Kaylee swung her makeshift club at Angel's head.

Angel tossed River at the woman, Wesley tossed Wash at Mal and someone shouted.

Mal fell backwards under Wash's dead weight. By the time Mal struggled out from underneath Wash, the vampires, the blonde and Zoe were all gone.

"Where are they?" Mal demanded.

River, who was sitting next to him, shrugged and pointed first at a mound of dust that was slowly sifting through the grating and then down the hallway... toward the engine room or the stairs to the lower level, depending on where they wanted to go.

"River..." Mal growled as he turned Wash over. The man was not breathing. He had no pulse. Mal had a terrible feeling that he was either dead or turning into a vampire. Either way, Zoe was going to take the news poorly. Hell, as soon as he had a bit of breathing room, _he_ was going to take Wash's death poorly. "This is no time for you to be cryptic."

"Jie-jie turned Angel into dust while Wesley knocked Kaylee down and ran away," River reported as she crawled over to Simon. A short piece down the hallway, Kaylee was lying still and limp. At least she was breathing. "Zoe followed Wesley. Jie-jie followed Zoe."

 _"She doesn't even have a cross,"_ Mal snarled, frightened for the first time in a long time. Weeks, even. As he hurriedly stood, his brain made a random connection. "That's your jie-jie? The one you dragged Kaylee shopping for?"

"She's going to change the pattern and cut off the two by two, hands of blue," River reminded him. She was peeling Simon's eyelids back to peer at his eyes. "Jie-jie is going to save us all."

"Right. Right," Mal said again, deciding to worry about that later. "Wake this lot up."

_I have to get Zoe back. And, if by a miracle the vampire has gone down into the cargo hold instead of into the engine room where he can do the most damage, I need to seal off the lower level. I should probably do that anyway. Who knows what the vampires packed in those boxes._

 

 

 

Spike jolted into awareness with Drusilla's shuddering wails echoing through his ears. He slapped a hand over her mouth and tangled his limbs with hers before she could punch or kick a hole in their crate.

"Shhhh, princess," he murmured in her ear. "You're fine. It's just dark."

As he murmured reassurances and nonsense in her ear, Drusilla slowly relaxed.

Drusilla had loved the dark on Earth. Four hundred and some odd years later and she still had not gotten used to the darkness between the stars.

_And the others think that dragging her all through this miserable solar system is a good idea._

"She's come, my Spike," Drusilla whimpered. Her lips brushed against his palm on every word. "She's come!"

"Who's come, pet?"

"The sunshine!"

Spike growled. After over four hundred years of hearing about it, he was sick to _death_ of hearing about the sodding _sunshine._ It had destroyed his Great Romance with his Dark Princess. It had driven him back to good old Sunnyhell in search of the only Slayer to ever escape him. It had nearly destroyed him.

He was _still_ unable to hunt properly. Soulful Angelus was a better predator than him. _Angelus!_

Under him, Drusilla moaned.

"Sunshine's going to be so _angry,_ my Spike. So, so angry."

"I thought we left the sunshine on Earth, pet."

For Spike and Dru and most beings old enough to remember the actual Earth, there was never any of that Earth-That-Was crap. To them, there would only ever be one Earth, even if it probably had Old Ones, Elder Gods and their associated whatnot stomping all over it by then.

"Sunshine walks among the stars, following the dollies' cries. She's come to soothe her babies, Spike."

If he ever got the chance, Spike was going to slowly twist the sunshine's miserable head off. Assuming that anthropomorphic personifications had heads... or could be killed.

 _It might be better if the sunshine is immortal,_ Spike mused. _Then I can kill it over and over for **centuries.**_

Spike was not one for torture but, after being tortured by the sunshine and Drusilla for centuries, he was willing to make an exception.

"Good for her," Spike said a trifle grimly. "I've been looking forward to meeting her for _ages,_ Dru."

Spike was still murmuring in Drusilla's ear when the cadence of running footsteps approached and then entered the cargo bay.

Spike's face shifted before he could control it. Under his hand, he felt Dru's face shift too. She shuddered against him.

It had been a very long time since they had last eaten, probably days. It felt longer. And there was a living, breathing human _right there_ for the taking.

Not that Spike could kill the human for himself. And Angelus would probably try to blame him for whatever had gone wrong if he or Dru popped out before either Angelus let them out or the Reavers attacked. Instead of sating his thirst, Spike listened as blows were exchanged and Wesley taunted (a human) someone who fought him in grim silence.

Spike smiled thinly.

Challenges were fewer and further between since man had taken to the stars but it was nice to hear the proof that Angelus' 'fool proof plan' had backfired somewhere. It was too much to hope that Angelus would be dusted by his folly but Spike was willing to settle for a disfiguring or humiliating injury.

Underneath him, Drusilla was trembling and weeping.

"Sunshine's finally come to take you away, my Spike."

"I'm not going anywhere," Spike snapped. "I've never done, have I?"

"It doesn't matter what _is,"_ Drusilla hissed. "Sunshine will burn it all away and dance in the ashes. She'll give her gift freely. You will finally be warm and I will finally go home. Daddy has already gone to see his heart's desire. We'll all dance between her flames."

Spike's grip tightened on Drusilla. He knew a true prophecy when he heard one. He was sorting his thoughts so that he could ask the right questions when the crate, and the ship that housed it, gave an almighty shudder.

_Something's rammed into us. Reavers, hopefully. Whatever it is, we're eating it._

"Feel that, Dru?" Spike murmured as he tugged Drusilla into a crouch. "That's our supper, that is."

"I am _so_ hungry, my Spike," Dru whimpered piteously. "But the sunshine will be angry. I don't want the sunshine to be angry with me. What if we make the sunshine too angry to take us home again?"

"The sodding sunshine isn't going to care about a bunch of sodding Reavers," Spike snapped. "Not even the chip thinks they're worth punishing me over. Eat the Reavers, love."

They crouched in the darkness, waiting with the infinite patience ofpredators.

The Reavers were preceded by the scream of twisting metal and the howls of the damned.

Hearing more heartbeats and scenting sweat, blood and unwashed bodies, Spike tensed with anticipation. The things that he could do violence to were few and far between. He was going to enjoy every moment of this.

When a mob of Reavers wrenched open their crate, Spike exploded into action.

 

 

 

The vampire was not in the engine room, thank the Creator. Unfortunately, Zoe was not there either.

Mal edged down the stairs.

Zoe was standing at the foot of them, blocking the doorway, and watching something with single-minded ferocity. Her back was stuff and her arms were crossed over her chest. She was holding her opposing elbows in white-knuckled grips. Mal got close enough to look over Zoe's shoulder.

The blonde woman and the vampire were fighting, hand-to-hand and nearly faster than Mal could see.

"She's better than him," Zoe said quietly. Her voice was nearly drowned out by the vampire's taunting. "He knows it. She knows it. Why's she hesitating?"

Mal thought back to the hallway and the greetings exchanged by the woman and the two vampires. There was obviously history there and no way Zoe had missed that, even if she was out of her mind with fear for Wash.

"Not everyone's got your formidable constitution," Mal said, hoping that it would be enough. "She's River's jie-jie, by the way. The doc's gonna be thrilled."

Zoe jerked her head in a nod.

"He looking over my husband?"

"Zoe..."

Zoe's entire body gave a tiny little shiver. Her shoulders hunched.

"Captain," she said flatly, forcing him to say it.

"Wash is dead or a vampire," Mal said, refusing to fail her again so soon after failing to save Wash.

"The doc didn't know?"

"The doc was unconscious when I left to come after you. And all I know about vampires is that they're dead... but, uh, not. Obviously."

"Who has time to pay attention to fairytales?" she asked bitterly and Mal squeezed her shoulder. "Even having met those two... I can't help but hope that my husband is a vampire."

"They can't all be unmitigated assholes," Mal agreed. "Wash would be one of the good ones."

Zoe smiled wanly at Mal. Her eyes were suspiciously wet.

"He couldn't be anything else."

They stood there, watching the fist fight rage across the length and width of the cargo bay. The woman had gotten serious at some point and stopped messing around. The vampire was shamelessly running from her. He was also still taunting her.

"If she doesn't kill him, I'm going to kill her myself," Zoe added grimly. "And then him. Give me the Shepherd's cross."

"That sounds reasonable," Mal assured Zoe as he passed her the holy weapon.

Under their feet, the entire ship shuddered violently. They reeled and scrambled with the ease of practice.

"Reavers!" Mal exclaimed, saying their name like the curse it was. "They must've been attracted by all the noise!"

Zoe took two steps back, forcing Mal to move with her. She punched buttons on the panel by the door until the door hissed shut... and locked. Then she opened the panel next to the control pad and tore at the wires until they were a mess. If they lived through this, Kaylee was going to have a fit.

If they lived through it.

 

 

 

 _People in the future give the worst presents in the history of ever. Exhibit A, the boxes of instant **vampire,**_ Buffy thought as she vaulted over a crate. _Who fills a box with **vampires** and ships it to some unknowing person? No one deserves that. Not even Snyder. Oh, Snyder as a vampire. Now there's a horrible thought._

Why they were staying in their boxes was a mystery to Buffy but she was grateful for it nonetheless. It gave her a chance to deal with Wesley on a clear field, so to speak.

"Are you paying attention to me?" Wesley demanded.

Buffy arched her eyebrows. She shot him her best Scornful Head Cheerleader look and punched him in the face.

"Of course not," Wesley grunted as he reeled backwards. "You're still the same selfish, vacuous, arrogant bitch that I remember you being. That shouldn't be surprising. You look like you stepped right out of Sunnydale and into a firefly. But it is. Surprising, I mean."

Since Buffy had no earthly idea what he was talking about, and why the insides of a bug would be filled with machinery, she easily ignored Wesley attempt to rile her.

Wesley... The _demon_ wearing Wesley's face was a confident, talkative bastard. Not as perceptive as Spike but he made up for that by knowing her better. He was still crap at fighting and not even an earthquake was enough to make the fight fairer to him.

Buffy was a California girl born and bred. She knew how to handle herself in an earthquake. Some of her best slays _ever_ had happened while Mother Nature was shrugging her shoulders. Sadly, Wesley had also acquired the knack of compensating for unstable footing somewhere along the way.

It saved his life.

Sort of.

Well, it would have if Buffy was seriously trying to close the deal. Staking Angel had been painful but killing him was something that she had already worked herself up to. Twice. She knew from experience that she could deal with the emotional fallout later.

Wesley the Vampire was something new and unpleasant. As her Watcher, he had been awkward and nerdy and a pain in the ass but she had never actually considered killing him. Lately, she had even considered hunting him down and apologizing to him for being such an asshole to him. It had not been Wesley's fault that Giles was such a hard act to follow.

As their so-called fight progressed, Buffy found herself wishing that Faith had killed him when she had the chance, even if Wesley was still human then, and spared Buffy from this. It was a cowardly thought that drove Buffy forward and made her stop screwing around.

She was going to stake what was left of Wesley Wyndam-Price.

"Worked yourself up to it?" the demon solicitously inquired as he fell back. "I'm surprised it took you so long. You didn't even hesitate to stake Angel."

Buffy attacked more aggressively to cover her flinch.

"Oh ho!" crowed her opponent. He was definitely running from her by that point. "You _did!_ How delightful!"

Buffy had Wesley cornered and her hand was moving to deliver the killing blow, when the familiar sound of metal being twisted open rent the air. The room shook _again_ and a crate of vampires knocked into Buffy's side, saving Wesley from his dusty fate.

Buffy kicked the box away from herself, and coincidentally at Wesley's head, and staggered to her feet again. She was just storming over to where Wesley was pinned by the box of his brethren when a slobbering mass of something human-ish scrambled into the room. The screaming creatures might have been human once upon a time and a long, long time ago. That was no longer the case, however. Now, they stomped all over her spidey senses.

Whatever they were, they needed to have their asses slain.

 _I wish I'd thought to take an ax on patrol,_ Buffy thought as she crouched, readying herself for what promised to be an epic three-way battle. Those crates were probably only going to last for the first three or four seconds of the fight, if that long. _Everything's better when you have an ax._

 

 

 

Mal and Zoe retreated after they jammed the door to the lower level of the ship. They went back the way that they had come, quickly gathering crewmates, weapons and food as they went. They took Wash with them too. It was bad enough that he was dead. There was no way that they were going to leave him to be desecrated by the Reavers too. When they had everything and everyone gathered on the bridge, Mal shut the door, locked it and sealed it by virtue of ripping the wires out of the panel.

"Cap'n!" Kaylee protested. Loudly.

"Hush up, Kaylee. You can be as angry with me as you want to be later, _after_ we've survived the Reavers."

"Captain, you have to see this," Zoe said from the console that she was using to fiddle with the intra-ship communications equipment.

Mal joined her just in time to see the blonde woman rip a Reaver's arm off with one, casual twist of her wrist. As he watched, she used the arm to beat that Reaver and the one standing next to it to death. Mal felt vaguely sick just watching the brutality from the safety of a grainy video connection.

"What the hell is she?" he asked, not expecting an answer.

"The original," River said, answering him anyway. She was the only conscious member of the crew who was not hunched over the tiny video monitor. Instead, she actually looked _relaxed._ "And I am her pale shadow."

"River..." Simon said slowly. "Was the Alliance trying to make you into... something like that?"

"Someone," River corrected sharply. The bandages on her throat were very crisp and white, even against her pale skin. "A Slayer."

Shepherd Book sucked in his breath sharply. Apparently, he knew what a Slayer was. For himself, all Mal could say was that it sounded ominous.

"Where in this tired old 'verse did they find a Slayer to base you off of?" demanded Shepherd Book.

 _"They_ didn't. _We_ did. We called out to the 'verse and she heard us. She came to protect _us."_

"Us?" Mal asked, feeling a thrill of alarm. No one should have a woman like that (if she was indeed a woman) on his tail.

"The children at the Academy," Simon said in tones of realization. River nodded. "Where did she come from, mei mei?"

"Her home."

"And how did she get here?"

River frowned thoughtfully. "I think she walked. Mostly."

"Like light," said Kaylee who was staring resolutely at the back of Zoe's head. She was still slightly green from her brief glimpse of the monitor.

River beamed and nodded at Kaylee.

"Jie-jie's going to shake up the pattern and make something new," River said. She had said something like that once before but back then it had merely sounded crazy. Now, it sounded ominous. "She'll cut off the two by two hands of blue and cut the shadows into tiny little pieces and make them lie flat like they should."

"That's all fine and good," Mal said. "But no one's actually told me what a Slayer is or what she does."

"It's an ancient legend," Shepherd Book said. Unlike Kaylee, he had his eyes firmly fixed on the grainy video feed. "It was older than dirt even before the first ships left Earth-That-Was. They say that mankind was nearly made extinct by the demons before our ancestors had even discovered how to plant crops. Early man cried out to their gods for protection and their gods answered. From the deserts came a girl that was as strong and fast and fierce as the demons. When that first girl died, another girl rose to take her place. The Slayers drove the worst of the demons from our reality and protected our ancestors. They made Earth-That-Was habitable for our race."

"There's no such thing as demons," Mal said automatically. "Those're just stories to frighten children."

"There are _vampires, Reavers_ and a _Slayer_ fighting a three-way battle in your cargo bay," the Shepherd said dryly. "The time for well-placed skepticism has passed."

Mal pressed his lips together, hating that the old man had a point.

"So what happened to the Slayers?" the doc asked. He sent a quick, darting look towards his little sister. He was probably obsessing over River's 'shadow' status already.

"Something went badly wrong in the late twentieth century and the demon populations rose to untenable heights. Not even the Slayers could get them under control again. The Last Slayer died making sure that the last set of ships escaped Earth-That-Was," Book said solemnly. "We didn't leave Earth-That-Was because our population was too high for the planet to support us. We left because the demon population was too high for us to survive."

"Jie-jie left," River said abruptly. Off of their looks, she added, "The thing that went wrong? That was jie-jie leaving to come here. She heard us and she came, just like that. If she had stayed, everything would be different. I know. I can see the What-Was-And-Will-Never-Be."

"Don't say anything else," Jayne ordered River. "It's makin' me powerful uncomfortable. And that's bad, 'specially under the current situation."

"I don't care what she is or what she does," Zoe interrupted. "I just want to know what we'll be doin' about her, Captain."

"Keeping her," River said promptly, ignoring Jayne's mandate.

"Spacing her," Jayne said at the exact same time. He glared at River who blithely ignored him.

"We can't space her!" Kaylee protested. "She's protecting us from the vampires and Reavers!"

"If you send her away," Shepherd Book said, "I'll have to go with her."

Mal arched his eyebrows at the old man. The Shepherd shrugged his shoulders in response.

"My order has been waiting for Buffy Summers for a long, long time."

"I'll go too," River said resolutely. Simon made a strangling noise. "I have to help jie-jie change the whole 'verse and everything in it. And I've got to show her where I've left the others."

If River left, it went without saying that the doc would go with her.

"Zoe?" Mal asked. He slanted a look down at the top of the woman's head.

"Keep her," suggested a hoarse voice from behind Mal. He stiffened and Zoe gasped because Wash had been very dead when they carried him into the bridge and stowed him near the door. "She sounds like she might be the thing you and Zoe need."

Everyone turned to look at Wash. He was sitting up and watching them. His eyes were yellow and his features were utterly inhuman.

Zoe nearly knocked Mal on his ass in her rush to get to him.

"Idiot husband!" she scolded. Her arms were tight around him and her voice thick with tears. The sound of her grief and joy made Mal feel like an interloper on his own bridge. "You're never allowed to die before me again!"

"I won't," he promised as he held her close and delicately stroked her back. "But you've got to move back now, Sweet Pea. I've got a powerful urge to, er, bite your pretty throat. And then drain you dry."

Mal started looking around for that cross again.

"I didn't say I _would,_ Captain," Wash said sharply as Zoe pulled away from him. "I'd never try to harm my warrior woman. I'm just _hungry."_

"You start feelin' crazy, you head straight for the doc," Jayne said as he edged backwards, away from the vampire in their midst. "I guarantee that he's got the best blood of the lot of us."

Simon and River scowled at Jayne.

Wash smiled. It was full of sharp teeth and razor sharp humor.

"I'm not looking for quality," Wash practically purred as he stood. His eyes traced up the length of Jayne and across the breadth of his shoulders. Jayne was a very big man. "Just quantity."

"Capt'n," Jayne said urgently.

"Wash, you can't eat your crewmates," Mal said, hoping he sounded stern and not at all terrified, which he was. Terrified, that is.

 _Where the hell did I put that gorram holy cross?_ he wondered as he frantically patted his pockets down.

"Captain, I said I'd never hurt my _wife,"_ Wash said as his smile widened into something thoroughly unpleasant. "I never said anything about not harming the rest of you."

"Why don't you carry more than one cross?" Mal shouted at the Shepherd as the doc shoved River behind himself. Jayne did the same with Kaylee.

"I never saw the point of even having _one_ until now," Book snapped.

Zoe planted herself between the newly risen vampire and the rest of the crew.

"Husband, I have the Shepherd's cross. I will not allow you to eat our crewmates."

Wash hesitated. His yellow eyes lingered on Zoe's face.

Mal knew, just from the lines of Zoe's back and the set of her shoulders, that she was wearing one of her firm, no nonsense looks.

"Zoe..." he wheedled.

"No."

Wash sighed.

"As you wish."

Mal might have taken more comfort from Wash's easy capitulation to Zoe if he had not been eying Jayne's neck while he did it. Whatever Zoe thought, the matter was far from over. And from his expression, Jayne knew it too.

"So, uh, about the Slayer..." Jayne said. "I'd like to change my vote in light of the pilot turning into a murderous vampire. I think we should keep the pretty vampire-killing machine as close as possible. Closer even. She can have the second bunk in my room."

Zoe scowled. "She's _not_ slaying Wash."

"And my jie-jie's _not_ sleeping in your room," River said sharply. "Her room's the one across from mine. I decorated it for her."

Jayne scowled thunderously at both of the females.

"The ayes have it," Mal said quickly, hoping to keep the peace for awhile longer. A fist fight while trapped in a small room with a ravenously hungry vampire was in no one's best interests... except, possibly, the vampire's. "Assuming that she lives through tangling with the Reavers and the vampires, we're keepin' the Slayer."

Everyone glanced at the monitor.

It looked like she was going to survive. The Reavers and vampires were both falling back and onto the Reaver's ship. Either she was driving them back like her mythical ancestors did on Earth-That-Was or the vampires had gotten what they came for, one way or another.

Mal suspected that it was probably a mixture of the two.

_May the Creator have mercy on us all._

"Yay!" River cheered. "She's going to love her ice cream! And her sword!"

"Sword?" yelped Kaylee. "We didn't buy a sword!"

"Well, one found its way into her things," River said with such perfect innocence that lesser men might have believed her.

No one did.

As his crew bickered amongst itself, Mal set a course for the most lawless part of New Charon.

Wash needed fresh blood.


End file.
